Monthly Archives: May 2013

YourStory is kicked off with 5 stories from LGBTI people from regional, rural and remote Australia. Collected during Daniel Witthaus’ Beyond ‘That’s So Gay’ 266-day challenging homophobia tour, the stories are brought to life by maestro cartoonist, Kenton Penley Miller, and award-winning filmmaker, Jonathan Duffy. Voice artist, Emma Gibbs, and production assistant, Christian Bürkle, rounded out the small yet committed team.

The hope is that this will inspire more LGBTI people from regional, rural and remote communities to share their stories online in either a visual, cartoon and/or animated way. The way the National Institute for Challenging Homophobia Education (NICHE) sees it, the more stories that are told of life for LGBTI people outside of metropolitan centres, the better. NICHE’s motto is ‘TALK, SHARE, CHANGE’.

The first instalment tells the story of ‘Mini’, a lesbian from rural Australia. “L” is the first letter in LGBTI. In the coming weeks a staggered release of Gay (“G”), Bisexual (“B”), Transgender (“T”) and Intersex (“I”) stories will be added to complete “the LGBTI set”. The complete set will be uploaded by July 2013.

In the meantime, the challenge is set for LGBTI people and their allies to get working on their own stories. Create your own, work as a group or seek out an LGBTI story to profile in a visual, cartoon-ish or animated way.

Recently Daniel recorded a three-part TV interview for ‘In The Thick Of It’ with Sammi Whitehead (JOY94.9FM, Bent TV).

Part One: hear Daniel talk about being mistaken for a boyfriend-hunter when he first volunteered; find out how he and another worker were called paedophiles by a parent on the front page of the Geelong Addy; and much more on his early work in Geelong, Victoria.

Part Two: hear Daniel talk about repeating Rodney Croome’s work on the smell of an oily rag; the isolation of being the only “gay-friendly voice” in the village; and, the need to work “outside the bubble”. After they called cut on this the crew surprised Daniel and broke into a round of applause…

Part Three: hear Daniel talk about the National Institute for Challenging Homophobia Education (NICHE), the need to deepen conversations, moving beyond awareness, not needing to do anything extraordinary and the power of everyday stories.

In recent months Daniel Witthaus has been interviewing members of the Pink Magpies, the supporter’s group for the Collingwood Football Club. Daniel is hoping to slowly collect everyday LGBTI stories from those that love football. This includes the families of LGBTI people.

A mini doco of Daniel’s work and the launch of the National Institute for Challenging Homophobia Education (NICHE) was completed in December 2012. A joint project by filmmakers Ryan Coonan and award-winning Jonathan “The Doctor’s Wife” Duffy, Finding Your NICHE’ was screened during Melbourne’s annual Melbourne Queer Film Festival.

In recent months Daniel has taken to the road to talk to major mental health organisations headspace and beyondblue. Both are interested in the work of the newly formed National Institute for Challenging Homophobia Education (NICHE). Discussions will continue with both wanting to discuss specific funding and partnerships. Already headspace has offered their HQ as a meeting space for future NICHE gatherings in Melbourne, Victoria.